Manchester bus franchising

[KXW212]

RE: Manchester bus franchising

(20/02/2023 17:28)Barney Wrote:  To which scheme and which political party are you referring? Is it the Conservative government that passed the Transport Act of 1985 that introduced bus deregulation or the Labour controlled Greater Manchester Combined Authority that has decided to use the Bus Services Act of 2017 legislation - also passed by a Conservative government - to introduce franchising?

it's utterly bizarre that those two pieces of legislation exist together. You either have dereg or you don't. It certainly demonstrates that politicians shouldn't be anywhere near public transport (and many other things). But Burnham is taking advantage of the latter, to further his 'public ownership' agenda, so it's perfectly understandable. That wouldn't be too bad, however anybody having any dealings with a local/transport authority will know all too well what a nightmare that is. These authorities unfortunately are devoid of any transport professionals who understand the industry and that's without doubt showing here, to the tune of £2.5m and ultimately much much more.